Located behind a high school, a collection of baseball fields illuminate the night with their bright spotlights and crowds of fans attending a baseball tournament, an event raging through the entire day. Approaching this spectacle, a bright yellow bus stops right at the entrance to the gated complex. Out of its doors appear player after player, each one dressed in a blue, gold, and white jersey with clean and shining baseball pants. They each have a blue and white baseball cap with a prominent “J” stitched into the fabric. Then comes the coach, carrying a bucket of balls and standing proud amongst his team. He motions with a simple nod forward, and everyone steps towards the field, ready to embark in a weekend of baseball.
Through the end of February and most of March, the Jesuit JV baseball team participated in three tournaments, one of which was hosted by Jesuit itself. In these three events, teams from all over the Dallas metroplex area came to compete against each other and to test their skills in preparation for the upcoming spring season.
On February 25-27, JV baseball competed in a tournament held at Little Elm High School. The team came with high expectations, coming off of great performances in previous scrimmages, and these were met preliminarily with two solid wins against Sherman and Little Elm in pool play. However, they came back the next day and tied Lake Dallas 1-1, and the following day lost 0-4 to Byron Nelson in single-elimination bracket play. Reflecting on the weekend, Sophomore Luke Przybylski ’18 said, “We started off hot and lost our focus in the last game, and it cost us the win. However, we learned to keep our composure in tough situations and not get our heads down.” The team was frustrated with their performance, but overall, each player saw it as a learning experience.
The next weekend, March 3-5, the JV team participated in a tournament at Hebron high school. Coming off a disappointing, but enlightening performance the previous week, the team was inspired to transcend these results, and won three games in a row, playing with maximum effort. The next day, however, despite the team’s exceptional energy on the field, with only a few errors or mistakes, the team was defeated 3-8 by Hebron high school, eliminating Jesuit from the championship game. Finally, though a little discouraged by the previous loss, the team came out strong the next day and had an assertive victory against Southlake Carroll 6-3. Reviewing the team’s performance, sophomore Will Gibbins ’18 stated,”We came out with full effort the entire tournament, but sometimes, there’s just gonna be that one team that outmatches us, and unfortunately, they beat us at the most crucial moment.” Overall, the team saw the event as a major success, but also learned humility in that they will not always be the best.
Finally, through March 10-12, Jesuit JV baseball hosted a tournament at Wright Field. The team performed poorly in the first game, losing 0-4 to Colleyville Heritage, and the second game was then canceled due to rain. Things couldn’t have been looking dimmer, but they picked it up the next game against Prosper with a solid victory. Finally, during the last game of the tournament against Highland Park, and possibly the most exhilarating game of all the tournaments, the team came back from a 5-0 deficit to win the game 6-5 in walk-off fashion during the seventh inning. After the thrilling game, sophomore Paul Gramling ’18 had a few words to say about the tournament; “We started off slow at first, but then played strong for the rest of the weekend, coming back to Highland Park in personally my favorite game of all three tournaments.” Obviously, although the original disappointment from the first game, the team viewed their performance as a huge victory, rallying off of their memorable win against Highland Park.
Overall, assessing all three tournaments, the team performed strong and excelled in many areas, but also learned a few things about mentality and the approaches one has to take to be successful on the field. Coming off of tournament play and their inspiring victory over Highland Pack, the team is now better than ever and ready to take on district.
The district season started March 17, and the team is off to a strong 3-0 start. Please come out and support your Jesuit Rangers.
